Wow. I lived not far from there in the early 1990s - how things have changed. At that point I had to go to SADKO near Kievsky Vokzal in order to buy what I couldn't get at the univermag near the Yugo Zapadnaya station, just down the road from MGIMO, where I was a grad student. Most often, I'd buy my produce at the rinok, b/c the univermags just didn't have anything.

Thanks for this post. You've shown me how my own little corner of Moskva has changed.

Two great exports from Washington State; Apples, and Russia Blog!

But which one is fresher?:):)

A large, western-style supermarket? Which sells fresh apples? Oh, you lucky, lucky things!

I remember the periods spent at MGU: how was difficult to find something "normal" (in Russian meaning) to eat... I used to catch the metro to the Park kul'tury stop where, at those times (only the 90s)there was the only "Western Standard" supermarket at the sacond floor of the bookshop "Progress"... It's evident that today's students are lucky, or may be not...

Yeah, but can you get POWDERED SUGAR???!!
Old issue that longtime Russiablog readers can appreciate.....

Anonymous: Don't be fooled by us, the crazed Russophiles - no one can get powdered sugar in the "neo Soviet Union", and obviously from these pictures only oligarchs can afford to shop at such stores. Can't you tell by their sense of style? :)

Absolutely.
I guess there will be no homemade Russian Easter cakes for the babushkas this year either. Only the Oligarchs will have access to the powdered sugar for their chefs to bake with.

So that's what Russian oligarchs look like. Hmmm, enlightening.

Obviously if Russians could buy powdered sugar Charles would have taken a picture of it. Those poor poor souls, now they will probably have to make their easter cakes out of mushrooms or beets. It's a travesty and Putin should do something about it.

Andy Young of Siberian Light informed the Anonymous Russia blogging collective (TM) that he bought powdered sugar in Irkutsk, in the deep heart of Siberia, but to no avail. Apparently I am still guilty of "neo-Soviet propaganda" for pointing out such an absurd claim and what it says about the anonymous blog collective's (TM) credibility. At least if we make a typo or other mistake, you actually know who we are...as you can see from this link:

http://www.russiablog.org/2007/03/cobblers_by_day_cabalists_by_n.php#comment-58052

The last and most amusing thing about the anonymous Russia blog collective (TM) is he/she/they/it's odd habit of ranking traffic based purely on number of links from other blogs. This seems misleading as any random (or even totally inactive) blog that links to the anonymous Russia blogging collective (TM) could get no hits at all and still count towards this Technorati score, simply because it links to that blog. I would think that the number of people actually reading a site, and who is reading it, is what actually matters. But what do I know?

Hmmmm there is some ill thought out posting here. I live in Moscow. So only Oligarchs shop at Ramstore and Mega? No thousands of ordinary middle class Russians shop at these places every day.Thats how they are economically viable! They only exist because they can be supported by a very large number of regular shoppers..not just a handful. It is a different world now and Soviet Russia was a long time ago The irony is there is better choice and quality than in "made in China" North America.Go on, believe the bread queue myths and al the negativity western press throws at Russia....go on...and be left behind in what you think is here

frussia.com

This is the largest independent documentary on modern Russia from an outsider's perspective..a Canadian photographer...a positive perspective.

It is time to wake up to the New Russia and be open and friendly to a wonderful Nation